The ‘Corporate Reputation of Pharma in 2017’ report is based on the findings of a PatientView November 2017-February 2018 survey exploring the views of 1,330 patient groups worldwide. The report provides feedback on the corporate reputation of the pharma industry during 2017, as well as on the performance of 46 pharma companies at 12 key indicators that influence corporate reputation.

Respondent patient groups were far more negative in 2017 than in 2016 about several other pharma-industry activities. For instance, only 48% of 2017′s respondent patient groups judged pharma Excellent or Good at being innovative. The 2017 figure is the lowest-reported percentage for the pharma industry’s capacity to innovate since 2011. Equally negative were 2017 attitudes towards the industry’s ability to make high-quality products. Only 57% of respondent patient groups in 2017 saw pharma as Excellent or Good at making high-quality products.

Major structural issues appear to be damaging the pharma industry’s R&D productivity. For example, companies are increasingly finding difficulty in differentiating their products from those of their competitors and they are also having trouble tackling unmet patient needs, and innovating. Although 2017 unlike previous years brought few, if any, large-scale safety problems, safety remains a perennial concern for most patient groups. Mental-health patient groups which represent the largest proportion of respondents to the Corporate-Reputation survey (8% in 2017) particularly emphasise the subject of patient safety.